Purple x Gold Laurel Crown Mani

I've spent the last couple of weeks tidying up the house and the yard to invite people for Christmas party. Our yard was quite a state after being neglected for nearly a month while we were in Japan, and with this hot weather, weeds grew so tall. Mowing isn't really my thing, and I'm so glad everything is over! I can finally sit down and do my nails. I also spent some time changing the look on my blog. Not completely done yet, but so far I'm liking the simple look.
Onto today's nails. I decided to create a mani using some A-England shades I recently bought.Middle finger & ring finger: I started off with base coat then placed a piece of circle tape from What's Up Nail Art Store near cuticle, and painted A-England Avalon over the tape. Then I made a stamping decal out of laurel-crown-looking pattern on Pueen Fancy Lover 01 plate (review post here) using Hit the Bottle 'To Have and To Gold', coloured in with A-England Rose Bower and Cathy. I placed those decals on middle & ring finger, and finished off with HK Girl topcoat.Thumb, pointer & pinkie: Base is A-England Cathy. I placed 4 sets of striping tapes vertically on those nails, and painted Rose Bower over the tapes. Added a gold stud and topcoat.
Out of all the beautiful images on this Pueen plate, this stamp really caught my eyes, and I thought it would look gorgeous with purple x gold combo. Glad it turned out the way I wanted!

Color4nails Haul - A-England & Dance Legend Swatches

Color4nails was having a 25% off sale for Black Friday, and I decided to make my 3rd order. Because of the holiday season, delivery was slower than usual, and it took about 3 weeks to get here. Let's see what I got.

4 A-England polishes from To Emily Bronte collection, and 1 Dance Legend polish from Wow Prism collection. Color4nails is based in U.S. but the shipping for 5 items to Australia is only $11. That's one reason I keep buying from this shop.

Christmas Decoration Mani Featuring Ejiubas Stamping Plate

10 days till Christmas, and I finally created my first (and probably the only) Christmas mani this year.
I started off with A-England Bridal Veil for all my nails. Then I stamped a festive swirly pattern on Ejiubas EJB-03 plate using Hit the Bottle Paint the Town Violet (purple) or Poison Apple (red). I turned the plate over, as this plate is double-sided, and made stamping decals out of few different small images using Hit the Bottle To Have and to Gold, coloured in with red and green. For pinkie and thumb, I decided to stamp snowflake pattern using Urban Nail Art White. I added gold bullions to represent hanging chains, and finished off with Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat.
I did a review on this Ejiubas plate before on this post, and here are the links to the shop:

Oil Painting Blue Rose Mani

I created the first mani using the Pueen Cosmetics Lover collection plate I was sent for review (review post here), and I tried something new.Thumb, middle finger & ring finger: Base is JOSS Chrissie's Brass. I stamped a big rose pattern from Pueen Nature Lover 01 plate with Pure White from Pueen Super Intense collection. Then I coloured in rose stamp using white, blue, and purple acrylic paints instead of regular polish. I only slightly mixed those paints so the colours look more random and 3D instead of flat. I applied Daiso topcoat to decalise the stamp, then peeled of and placed on those nails. I added some white dots using dotting tool, and finished off with topcoat.Pointer & pinkie: Base is JOSS Chrissie's Brass. I stamped a leaf pattern from the same plate with Pueen Pure White, then coloured in with white, citrus, and green acrylic paints. I made a decal the same way and placed on those nails.This impressively big and gorgeous rose stamp made me want to go for oil painting look, and I thought acrylic paints will make it easier than regular polish. I was right - despite the fact that this is my first try, everything went so smooth and without hassle. I can't be happier with how this turned out.I also used DRK Stamping mat to work on this time. I mixed those paints directly on the mat, and when the work is done, I simply wiped the paints with wet paper towel, and it looks good as new. I love all my new toys!

And these are the acrylic paints I used. They are 'Liquitex' soft type acrylic paints and work with and without water. I wet my brush once and patted dry on paper towel, then mixed those paints. If you use too much water, then the paints repel on stamper, so you need to make sure you use as less water as possible. I'm not sure how the hard type acrylic paints (ones that need water) work, so be sure to grab soft ones for this technique.

Pueen Cosmetics Lover Collection Stamping Set Review

Another exciting mail from Pueen Cosmetics has arrived. They recently released a stamping plate set called 'Lover Collection', and this is the set I received for review this time.Before I go into review, here are the links to Pueen Cosmetics store and SNS:

This is the set I received. I'm always impressed with how nice the packaging is for each Pueen collection, and this is no exception.

こちらが今回送られてきたセット。Pueenの商品はパッケージも凝っていて開けるのが楽しくなりますね。

Back of the box has the description of how to use this stamping set, which is great for stamping beginners.

箱の裏側にはスタンピングセットの使い方の説明が書かれており、スタンピングをやったことがない方でもすぐに使い始められるようになっています。

Inside of the box is like this.

箱の中身はこんな感じ。

These are the contents of the set. 4 rectangle plates, stamper and a scraper. Price for the set is only $18.99, and you can buy from this page. You can also buy each individual plate for $4.99. Before I went to the website to check the price, I was expecting this set to be around $30. What a reasonable price!

DRK Stamping Mat Review

On the week I was back from Japan, the much waited DRK Stamping Mat restock happened, so I quickly placed an order. Stamping Mat is getting very popular among stamping addicts, and few stamping brands have released their own mat already. I don't have any other mats to compare, but I'll show you what this DRK Stamping Mat can do.I bought 2 mats, clear and black, and they arrived a week and a half after they were shipped. Let's have a look.

I'll focus on the clear mat for the purpose of this review, as the functionality is the same with both mats. DRK Mat is made of silicone, and is roughly 40cm x 30cm. Top part of the mat has coloured splashes where you can test different colour combos, and the right part has drawing of hands and nails. Left part has DRK logo and some patterns.

Atlantean Goddess Mani Featuring Messy Mansion MM67

December is the first month of summer in Australia, and guess what? It's already 40 degrees where I live. Sun doesn't go down till 8 in the evening, leaving us super hot even at night. Good thing is that we have plenty of sunshine that's necessary for taking nail photos (lol), but yeah I'm not really a fan of this stifling season!Anyway onto the mani. I decided to use my Messy Mansion plate that was sent for review, this time MM67.The base for all nails is JOSS Boldest Blue, super saturated electric blue. Then I stamped different patterns from Messy Mansion MM67 plate with Messy Mansion Soft Gold, applied black polish over the stamp, and let them dry for 30 mins. I peeled them off of stamper, cut to nail size and placed them on each nail. I also added swarovski crystal on middle finger.I always have difficulty naming a mani, so I asked hubby for opinion and he named it 'Atlantean Goddess'. I wasn't sure why he chose the word 'Atlantean' so I googled and found lots of images with blue colour. Great, it's decided! Having such a beautiful cool colour on my nails on this hot day is such a treat :)

Turquoise Stripe Mani Featuring Pueen Super Intense Polishes

My nails are still a bit short from breakage the other day, but I decided to go ahead and create a mani. This is the first time I use Super Intense polishes sent by Pueen Cosmetics (review post here).Thumb, middle finger & ring finger: I started off with one coat of Essie Tie the Knot, which is a very sheer nude. This polish is perfect if you're going for negative space mani without being completely naked (the nails, that is). Then I applied Simply Peel around my nails, stamped a floral pattern from Pueen Celebration Lace Blossom plate using Pueen 806 Pure White from Super Intense collection, and peeled off Simply Peel. I applied topcoat, then placed 2 sets of striping tapes near the tip of those nails and near cuticle. I painted 813 Mermaid Green on those 2 sections, and peeled off tapes. Then I placed another 2 sets of tapes and painted 805 Black Jack between them. I topcoated and applied a ss9 magenta colour swarovski crystal and a gold stud I bought in Japan.Pointer & pinkie: I painted 805 Black Jack and applied a diamond shape stud.Don't you just love the negative space & turquoise & black stripe combo? I saw a picture of a turquoise dress with a see-through bit with floral pattern on, and saved it in my 'inspo' folder a long time ago, and that's where the inspiration of this mani comes from. Black stripe and the decorations are my addition though.I used the Super Intense polishes both as a stamping polish and a regular polish for this mani. They applied so nicely on my nails, and I didn't need multiple coats as they are very opaque. I'll be saving them for stamping purpose though, as I don't want to use up a good stamping polish when I have lots of regular polishes.